Vampire
by Moonphase
Summary: Written for the November Challenge by PPG-Horror on deviantart. Bubbles is a young girl leaving in a cursed village. Out of desperation she heads for the Castle Čachtice in the hopes of finding food and her long-lost sisters. However, dark and disturbing rumours exist about the Castle and about the monstrous family that reside in its walls. Will Bubbles survive its evil?
1. The Castle

**A.N.- Written for the November 'Vampire' challenge by the PPG-Horror club which can be found on Deviant-art. I wanted it to be a one-shot but I'm pretty rubbish at one shots, so I've had to break it up. Hope you like it so far :) I've just gotta make sure to get it finished by the 30th, lol, wish me luck, I'm terribly slow at up-dating**

**FYI, random fact, I've based this very, very loosely off the Bathory family, namely, a psycho called Elizabeth Bathory who killed many young girls and legend has it she bathed in their blood, hence she is very tied up in the vampire mythos.**

**The names of the castle and place is where she lived and did most of her tortures and murders.**

**Also, for those interested, I will be continuing Epidemic, just give me a bit of time. They'll probably be a time skip, for those interested :)**

* * *

It was deep winter. The wolves could be heard calling out to the moon. They usually left the people of the village of Cachville alone, choosing to stay within the wilderness of the Little Carpathians mountain range, but with such a long and harsh winter they were circling the village, stealing away and killing anyone foolish enough to step too far out of the man-made confines.

In the Utoni household there used to be three beautiful girls and their two darling parents. But since the Dark Times had arrived, along with permanent snow and cold, the household had shortened down to just two people. A place of humble beauty, a cottage surrounded by wild flowers and chirping birds, filled with the laughter of little girls now was desolate and empty and silent. Like its neighbours, the cottage had fallen into disrepair. Holes gaped in the poorly thatched roof. The wood, no longer covered by ivy and scented flowers, had turned a deep black due to the heavy, wet weather. Crows hopped about the ground desperately hoping to awaken worms and to tempt them out of the ground.

Snow fell continuously. Beautiful, little white fairies against a backdrop of black sky, but it was deadly. Most of the village was dead or dying. Most of the people there were old.

Bubbles, one of the few youngsters left free, shivered hearing the howling of the wolves before closing the wooden shutters and running up to the fire in their small one bedroom home. Her father sat in the only chair, situated in front of the fire. She curled up on his lap and looked up at his face. He was a young man, but aged before his time. The light shone flickering shadows upon his face, warping it, changing it, making it shift constantly so that it was unreadable. She looked away.

"_Oh when will winter end?"_ she complained to herself before saying aloud, "papa, when the snow finally goes away, then my big sister will come back won't she?"

"That was what we were promised," he said flatly, his voice dry.

"Maybe then Buttercup will come back," she said hopefully.

Father said nothing. Both knew what he was thinking. That Buttercup was gone for good. That the wolves had taken her. That she was dead.

There was no talking for a little while, only the crackling of their weak fire, the only thing of value in their small huddle of a home.

At last father said, "there is no food left. We have finished are stores. The rations are depleted." He sighed, squeezing his eyes shut and letting one last tear fall down his cheek, "we are going to die. Or at least, I am."

"Papa no!" Bubbles turned in his lap so that she could hug him, "please don't talk that way! We will work it out somehow."

"You are fourteen years old, beautiful and wonderful. You should be courting handsome boys and running free in the fields of emerald grass under a sapphire sky. You should not be condemned to cold and misery and starvation. It isn't right." He paused, listening to his fair child weeping piteously, "I received a summons from Castle Čachtice early this morning..."

"From the Castle, where Blossom went to?"

"Yes, they are in need of more maids."

"They're always in need of more maids," shuddered Bubbles.

"Pay no mind to the rumours and gossip," he chastised, noticing her shaking, "there is no proof of such happenings. The Morbucks are our betters and key employers of our village. If they need more maids, well, I'd rather you in a handsome castle than starving here with me."

"But you believe the gossip too," she argued, "that's why you tried to get Blossom back, and why you've waited so long before sending me to the castle. I know there have been many more requests for new girls to serve Lady Elizabeth Morbucks. Everyone knows." She got off his lap and stared at him mournfully, "please do not send me there papa. I would never see you again, even if there is no evil in that castle, no one ever leaves it. We haven't seen Blossom once since she went away."

"I cannot help it," he said, his voice still dry and blank, as if all his emotions had been used up, and empty well of a man, a shell of his former self, "you will definitely die out here with me. But you might survive in that castle. Perhaps if you are clever or get into the family's good graces. And how could you not? You are beautiful and kind and good. No one could hate you. I have to trust that the rumours are false, and that you are stronger than you appear."

She fell to her knees, placing her head on his lap and crying. "Papa, please don't! I'd rather die out here with you."

"Well that's not what I want," he answered, "you will go, tonight. You will go tomorrow morning and I shall pray for you."

"But you'll be all alone!"

"I shall spend my last days hoping that you are safe and well. Do you hear that? The wolves are even closer. They can sense us all dying. They will..." he stopped himself from saying that they wanted to eat the corpse he would leave behind. His daughter was traumatised enough. He wanted to save her from what he could. "Don't hate me," he said instead, "I do this because I love you."

"I know," she sniffed, resigned, "I know papa."

They spent the night as they always did, lying on the hearth in front of the fire. They slept together under one small blanket because it was too cold to sleep separately. Bubbles lay awake shivering. Lowly the sky outside transformed from its starless black to a hazy grey. The white light shone through the window. The wolves' howls were replaced with coarse cawing of ravens and crows. She reluctantly pulled away from her warm father and re-lit the fire. It was so cold that she could see her own breath. She rubbed her skin, which was dry and cracked from the perpetual cold. How long had it been winter now? It felt like years. Ever since the Morbucks came, it had been nothing but winter.

When the fire was warm enough and her father began to stir she put on the metal kettle, the kettle filled with snow which she would boil for them to drink. They sipped their boiling water a few minutes later and ate the last bits of dry bread they had. Father gave her the biggest chunk saying she would need it for the journey. She nodded and accepted the gift, knowing it would make him happy, just a little, just as much happiness that his frozen, broken heart could muster.

Parting was a quiet, sombre affair. They hugged on the doorstep of the cottage for far too long. A few tears falling from her crystal blue eyes. The wind blew bitterly from the north, bellowing like a giant, unseen bully.

"Be gone now," he said, "the castle calls you."

"I shall return papa," she said firmly, "I will come back for you. Please try to stay alive. Please try! You won't have me holding you back, but you will have the hope of me finding you again someday."

He gripped her hand tight, "I shall try," he whispered at length before finally letting her go. He immediately missed his warmth, but fighting against the urge to go back to him, to run into his arms, she began to walk away. She didn't look back; she couldn't, she just couldn't.

A few faces in the other cottages watched her as she left. Their faces were blank, their eyes hollow. They were starved and hopeless. She grit her jaw, too young to have given up the way they had.

In the distance Castle Čachtice stood overlooking the village like an ogre. It was enormous, so large that it used to block out the sun, casting the village always in its shadow. Whoever had made the castle had been cruel to place it there, as if to let the people know that they were never as important as the people living inside it. That the rich could even steal their sun if they wanted to.

Bubbles stomped through the snow, walking becoming harder the further away she drifted from the village. The snow reached her knees so that she had to wade through it, as if walking in water. Soon she was feeling almost hot from the excursion, her chest heaving and her heart beating fast. All the while the castle got closer.

She could see the ravens and crows flying about its torrents. The bricks were jet black and looked wet.

Bubbles leapt slightly when she heard a snarl. She turned and looked behind her. Three wolves stood on a hill above her, staring down. She frowned at them, not allowing herself to exert fear. The wolves tongues were hanging loose, but none of them looked hostile, so she continued to walk, all the time looking out for a stick or a rock so that she could use it as a weapon against them if she needed to.

They followed her all the way to the castle, but did not attack her at all.

At last, as afternoon fell and the sky was already darkening, she arrived at Čachtice. The castle's shadow stretched out along the hill that it stood upon. Looking behind her she saw the three wolves and beyond that she could see the small black squares that made up the homes of her little village.

"_Papa."_

The wolves let out a whine. She focused on them only to see them pawing anxiously at the Castle's shadow. It seemed they did not wish to cross it.

"That is a bad omen," she thought gulping. Nonetheless, she walked straight up to the large oak doors. On them was a knocker which was shaped as a human skull. Rather tasteless and vulgar, but the Morbucks were a known violent, warrior family whose ancestors had been thieves and criminals and murderers. There were rumours of them all being insane from generations of incest and rape.

Steeling herself, she banged the knocker and waited patiently for several minutes before the door was finally opened by a sinister woman with a pale complexion and long dark hair. She smiled down at Bubbles. "Well aren't you a delicious little morsel," she declared, Bubbles noting her unusually sharp teeth.

"I've come here about a job," answered Bubbles staring up at the tall woman, "my father heard you need more maids here."

"Come in, come in, you must be frozen." Bubbles entered at the woman's bequest. Inside the house was huge. The walls were a deep rich brown. On them were large portraits of the Morbucks ancestors. They were usually on horses and wore armour. Many of them had fiery red hair, or deep black hair like the tall lady. All of them had full red lips and a dark glint in their eye. They all stared down at her. The only light came from a chandelier, half the candles lit and flickering from a draft that was blowing through the building. Like her father's face the night before, the light cast strange shadows across the walls that were in almost constant motion. Everything was strange and out of sorts.

"Who are you?" she breathed.

The lady smiled, "I am Sedusa Morbucks. I am the aunt of the Lady of this house. I have come to stay."

"I'm sorry, I did not know you was...I wouldn't have spoken to you in such a casual way My Lady, had I known you were a Morbuck."

"Quite alright. We do not have enough staff. But I'm sure you can help us now, can't you?"

"Yes My lady," Bubbles gave a small curtsey.

Lady Sedusa led Bubbles up a large and long staircase that wound its way up the castle. It led to a corridor which was almost completely black. Sedusa took a candle and continued to lead the way. On the wall gargoyles stretched out their arms, their mouths frozen open, their eyes bulging. In the distance the wolves were singing their chorus again. Bubbles felt like crying then, but she didn't.

At the end of the corridor was a red door. Lady Sedusa knocked it thrice before opening it. As she did a cold wind with snow blew out from under it. Bubbles held in a small gasp. Inside the room the walls were pure black. There was a bed, also black with black, rich looking sheets. In the middle was a large mirror. It stood tall, the outside of it obsidian black, so black that Bubbles couldn't work out what it was made from. In front of the mirror stood a pale-skinned girl with fiery red hair which fell in long curls down her back. Like Lady Sedusa she was very tall and very slender. She wore a thin silk dress which was long but revealed most of her white back and arms. The window was open, allowing the howls of wolves and the wind and snow to pour in. However, she seemed quite unaffected by it all.

She turned and smiled at them, her black eyes lighting greedily when she looked down at Bubbles.

"And what do you have for me aunt? What gift is this?"

"A girl from the village," answered Lady Sedusa, " isn't she pretty? Look at this hair, like the sun's been captured within it."

Bubbles felt the long nails of Lady Sedusa feeling through the hair and gently touching the scalp, trailing down the side of her neck and settling at its base.

"Very pretty," hissed the red-head, "I am Elizabeth Morbucks, you're better, you're duchess. You will work for me now. You will be mine."

"Yes My Lady," gulped Bubbles, not liking the situation at all.

Lady Sedusa chucked darkly behind her, making her shiver.

"What is your name child?"

"Bubbles Utoni My Lady."

Lady Elizabeth breathed in through her sharp nostrils, and for a moment looked to be in pure ecstasy before she opened her eyes and calmed herself again.

"Utoni?" she repeated, "that sounds familiar."

"I have a sister, she is here. She came for work."

The two women looked at one another, as if they were swapping a secret message.

"Well, maybe we shall find her at some point," said Lady Elizabeth, "we sometimes lose track of all the girls' names here. We have so many of you. So many, yet never enough. Aunty, would you be good enough to send Bubbles to her living quarters. You will start pleasing me tomorrow Bubbles."

"Yes My lady," she bopped a curtsey again before being swept out the room again, Elizabeth turning to admire herself in her mirror once more, the snow blowing around her.


	2. The Shadow in the corner of the room

**A.N.- Warning- this chap's a bit scary :)**

* * *

Bubbles was led to the very top of the house into one of the attics.

"Here is where you will sleep."

"Where are the other servants My Lady?" Bubbles looked up at Lady Sedusa, who smirked.

"They are working downstairs. Don't worry yourself, your mistress is very kind. We want you to sleep and eat, ready for a day's work tomorrow." She leaned down and placed a kiss on Bubbles head. It was ice-cold and hurt.

"Ouch!" gasped the blonde, unable to hold it in.

But Sedusa just smiled and pushed Bubbles into a room before walking away, closing the door behind her. The room was pure white, the exact opposite of Lady Elizabeth Morbucks. It was small, with a single bed with plain white sheets, the floor and walls were wooden and white-washed. Beside the bed was a small round table which had on it a bowl of broth and a chunk of bread. She ate it eagerly, not having eaten such good food in several months. The bread was soft and sweet, the broth full with animal fats and pieces of vegetables. Her stomach hummed in happiness. After licking up the last bits from her bowl and sucking the bits of bread on her fingers she realised something.

_"Why was the food here waiting?"_ she wondered,_ "how did they know I was coming?"_

Outside the wolves howled as Diana's milky white orb peeked out of the clouds. Bubbles walked over to the window, pulling off her clothes and stripping into her underwear ready for bed. The moon shone onto the white snow, lighting it up. Beneath her she could imagine the wolves waiting outside. She could hear their yips and soft growls. She wished she could throw some meaty scraps for them out the window, but she hadn't any.

"I'm sorry," she whispered before straining her eyes to look into the distance. At the bottom of the hill was a patch of shadow, which she knew was where her village lay. How was papa doing? He would be all alone for the first time tonight. All alone under his blanket.

Bubbles wiped away a few tears before saying a quick pray to god to protect herself and her papa, before finally climbing into bed.

Beside her was a single candle. The light was low and most of the small room was in shadow. _"It won't look so scary in the morning,"_ she thought. Nonetheless, even though she knew it was wasteful, she didn't put out the candle. Instead she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the bit of warmth it gave her.

She allowed her breaths to deepen slowly, willing herself to sleep. She was genuinely exhausted after her long journey. Then she heard the sound of the bedroom door knob being turned. She tensed and but kept her eyes shut. _"It might just be one of the servants,"_ she reasoned, _"coming to check on me."_

The room became even colder. She couldn't hear much but she sensed that something was in her room. Her heart began to pound against her chest and she forced herself to continue breathing somewhat normally, beads of sweat began to appear on her brow.

She remained like this for some time until...

A heavy thing, it felt like her hand, placed itself on her knee above the blanket. Bubbles gulped. The hand brushed its way up her leg and onto her body, squeezing her small belly slightly and grazing over her chest. She then felt a hand upon her neck. The hand was ice cold and had long nails on it.

Bubbles eyes snapped open and a pathetic whimper came out of her mouth.

Nothing was there.

She sat up, heart beating fast and furiously her breathing now heavy. The room was pitch black. The candle had gone out. The moon was hidden behind the clouds once more, for there wasn't even any light from the window.

She blinked as her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, picking out the shadows and variations of black.

The room was cold, but felt claustrophobic.

She scanned it, her eyes focusing on one corner of the room. It looked like something was there. Something tall. She touched her neck out of reflex, was it Lady Sedusa?

Bubbles stared, trying to work it out. Was it just her imagination? Or was there something there? If so what was it? It was completely immobile and too thin and too tall to be a person.

She wanted to see if she could light her candle again, but she knew she wouldn't be able to because there were no matches, plus she did not want to look away from the thing.

She became aware of noise. Outside the wind was blowing hard, breezing against her window. It was the kind of wind the witches used to like flying in, or so they said. The wolves were no longer howling.

There was a slight creaking sound outside in the castle somewhere. A door opening slowly perhaps? Maybe someone would be coming down the hallway soon, someone like another nice maid? Maybe her sister?

Bubbles let out a slight yelp of fear. The thing had moved, or rather, the top of it had. It had moved in the direction of the creaking sound, as if it was listening.

She gripped her bed sheets, her breathing picking up again. In the shadow, it moved slightly again into its old position. It's position of looking at her.

There was something shiny in the shadow, shiny and almond shaped.

An eye.

She was seeing an eye.

An eye looking right at her.

Tears began to fall from her own eyes. She wanted to scream, to call out for help, but she couldn't.

Outside, a litany of wolves began to cry out again, singing the song of the damned.

It was too loud, too much.

The shadow looked like it was getting bigger until Bubbles realised it wasn't getting bigger, it was coming closer to her. It was drifting slowly towards her, as if on wheels, its eye which she could clearly see focused on her the entire time.

She began to shake her head in fear and disbelief. Her head ached and her jaws were clenched together. She wanted to run to the door, but she couldn't move, her body was frozen to the spot and when she tried to move it, it was as if her body had become too heavy.

"_This is a nightmare, this is a nightmare, this is a nightmare..."_

But she wasn't waking up.

The thing was at the foot of her bed now. She could make out its long, scrawny arms ending with long, bony fingers and sharp, curling claws. The moonlight shone through the window again. It cast a dull, white hazy glow behind the black figure. The things shadow stretched out on the bed and Bubbles heard a blood-curdling scream.

It was her own.

Her own scream, tearing her throat for it came out in such force. The creature opened its mouth, sharp fangs glinting in the moonlight before it bore down on the small girl, muffling her terrified scream.

Bubbles felt the strong, cold teeth bury into her neck. She felt an overly large and wet mouth sucking at her, a tongue, rough like a cats, brushing against her skin.

She pushed at the being, which was heavy and cold, like a rock. It wouldn't move. She wept; she could feel it sucking at her blood.

Slowly the world began to darken as she became increasingly woozy until, at long last, blessed unconsciousness took her.


	3. Three Boys and a Dungeon

**Warnings- pretty dark near the end!**

* * *

Bubbles opened her large blue eyes.

The light from outside had lit up her white room. She looked like she was in heaven; pure and white and clean and simple.

She groaned.

Her head hurt badly and her neck, her neck felt so sore!

It took her a while to move for her body felt so heavy, but eventually she could lift her hand and put it to her neck. A shiver ran through her when she felt the puncture marks, two neat ones a short distance away from each other.

Had last night been real then?

Was there really evil in this place?

Why hadn't she been killed?

She looked at her arm and saw bruises decorating it. She had been hurt rather badly. She lifted herself out of bed and looked down at herself. There was some blood on her neck and vest, but not much. On her left knee was a burn mark, though she couldn't work out how she'd gotten it. Her neck was bruised and swollen also.

"_Should I run away?"_ she wondered, _"run back home? But what if that monster comes after me? It would kill papa. And what of Blossom? She came here many months ago. If I could find her, maybe we can find a way to escape together."_

There was a polite knock on the door. Bubbles called for them to come in.

A woman marched in briskly. She too was deathly pale, long blonde hair pulled back into a severe bun.

"Still lounging about?" she snarled, "and on your first day too? It's disgusting. Luckily for you the mistress has decided to be lenient on you." She appraised Bubbles silently before sneering, "I can't say I'm surprised. She always loves the pretty ones. But you won't stay pretty for long. I'll see to that."

She handed Bubbles a pile of folded clothes. "These are to be your new uniform. Wash your face then get dressed, I want you in the kitchen, located in the on the far end of this hall, very quickly. You are to put your hair up, we don't want it hanging out. Understand?"

"Yes Madam."

"Good." The woman went to leave but paused to add, "and my name is Madam Scara to you. Remember the name. I am your superior and in charge of all the staff here."

Bubbles washed her face with some water left by Madam Scara in a basin. T was icy cold and flushed her skin to a pale pink before drying it out. Her dress was a pale blue, with a high collar and reaching her knees. Her cheap shoes and tights were black and warm.

She wandered out of the room and down the hall which was dark despite it only being morning. As she walked she tied her hair into two pig-tails and looked at her surroundings. The walls were covered in scary faces. They looked like gargoyles or demons. They looked down at her, pulling faces and waggling their tongues. It was disturbing.

"_This house is strange and frightening. I want to go home. Perhaps, when I find Blossom, I will convince her to leave this place. Even with food I don't think I can stand to live here indefinitely."_ She wondered how Blossom had managed to stay so long. She had only stayed one night and her nerves felt fried.

At the end of the hall was a white door. It was at odds with the rest of the hallway which was mostly black with dark greens, grey and scarlet interlaced with the images of monsters and grotesques.

Bubbles put her ear to the door. She expected to hear the hustle and bustle of many servants getting ready, but there was nothing.

She opened the door and walked inside. The room was mostly dark brown, made out of oak wood. There was a long table in the middle of the room. No places were set out apart from one.

"_Maybe it is very late and everyone else is working,"_ she thought, before sitting down and looking at her plate. It was some simple gruel, made mostly from animal fat and onion, and a crust of bread. She ate it all gratefully.

Afterwards she walked around the kitchen. There were eighteen seats on the table, so she reasoned there must be at least eighteen staff members, though such a large castle would surely need more?

There was a large cooker, but it was very clean, almost as though it had not been used.

"_It's almost as if I'm all alone here,"_ she thought before noticing a note left on the side.

'_Blonde Girl,_

_Go collect a mop and bucket in the corner. Then go up into the West wing (that's on the right, as I can only guess that you are a fool and won't know otherwise) on the second floor and begin to mop out the old bedrooms (look out for the blue door). You are also to polish everything and to sweep the carpet. Get all of the rooms done. I will inspect your work in two hours. Failure will be met with punishment._

_~Madam Scara.'_

Bubbles had to assume that the note was left for her. She looked at the corner ad did indeed spot a bucket and mop. The bucket was filled with grey cold water, so she filled it afresh from the tap before going back out into the hallway.

She walked down the vast staircase she had been led up the day before. The whole house was silent. It was bizarre. Where was everyone? Lady Elizabeth, Lady Sedusa, the servants? Where were they?

The bucket was too heavy so she carried it down the stairs and then went back up for the mop. She then stumbled through the second floor, making sure she turned right, trying not to spill water on the carpet.

"'_Look out for the blue door,'"_ she repeated in her mind,_ "but what did she mean? Am I not to go in the blue one, or is that one I should definitely walk into?"_

The second floor looked as if it weren't used often. The hallway was slightly brighter, for down here there were windows, but then were covered by heavy curtains. All around cobwebs covered the walls, chandeliers and ceiling and the floor was thick with dust, so much in fact that when she walked she left a trial of footsteps.

"_It will take a long time to clean all of this."_

Bubbles came to the first door. She opened it and went inside, immediately coughing from all the dust that billowed out of it.

The room was a dark blue and was circular. The curtains were black and shut. She walked across the floor, which was littered with clothes and toys, before opening the curtains with relished. The pure light of innocent day burst through and eradicated the shadows in what must have been the first time in years. She looked around. "_This room must have belonged to a child,"_ she saw three beds in the centre of the room, _"three children. Little boys," _she added, seeing toy soldiers and chariots on the floor.

Going by the amount of mess made they must have been quite rambunctious. She smiled in spite of herself. She began to pick up all the toys, polishing them dutifully on her white apron before putting them away. There was a toy box which was flung up-side down. She righted it and placed them in there. When it was too full she noticed a number of shelves were loose, so she fixed them onto the wall and put the things up there neatly.

She realised with some amusement that there was three of everything, as if the boys did not know how to share, and that most of the toys were colour co-ordinated red, blue, and green. Even the beds had these three colours.

She wondered why the Blue Boy managed to have the bedroom walls painted his favourite colour.

The floor was wooden and painted white with a black spiral twisting round into the centre. She moped following its pattern and wondering about the children and the house. Who had they been? She didn't remember anything about three little boys once living here. She wanted to ask her papa, but he was far from her now. And her sister was still nowhere to be seen.

"_I'll be brave next time_," she swore, _"I won't be intimidated by Madam Scara and I will ask her about Blossom instead. Maybe even Buttercup, who knows, she may have come here."_

The room was nearly completed. She opened up a window to help get the dust out, despite the cold. The land was pure white, the sky a thick grey. Snow was falling again. She thought of Lady Elizabeth with her long red hair and talon-like nails. "I wonder if she has her bedroom window open to let in the snowflakes. I wonder if she is still looking into that mirror." Bubbles did think there was a sort of dark, elegant beauty to Elizabeth Morbucks, but she found the long red hair of her sister more beautiful and natural.

Bubbles missed her sisters terribly.

She moved away from the window, she had learnt long ago that it was pointless mourning over her family, and began to tidy the beds. As she fluffed one of the pillows , a rather large sheet of paper fell out from underneath it.

The sheet of paper had a picture on it, a ripped oil painting of three little boys. They were wearing their signature colours and glaring up at Bubbles. They had the same intensity she saw in the other family pictures around the castle. They must have been relatives of Lady Elizabeth and Sedusa; they must have been Morbucks themselves.

They didn't look like sweet-natured boys, but there was something about them that drew her to them. A sort of innocence that still existed in them. She focused in. They were cute, that much was true. Little round creatures, their hair a little too long, well-dressed and visibly spoiled. She stroked the blond one's face. They must have been around eight or nine years old when the picture was painted. It also looked like they were triplets, like her and her sisters.

"_Strange, they look like us a little,"_ she thought.

"What are you doing in here!" bellowed a voice so loudly that Bubbles shrieked and dropped the picture.

Madam Scara was standing in the doorway, her hair was free and almost white, and her facial expression was almost wild and evil.

"I-I clean, just like you said!" cried Bubbles.

Madam Scara grinned and licked her lips before crooning, "I told you not to come here. You disobeyed, now...now you shall be punished!"

"No, please, I'm sorry! Ow!"

Madam Scara had grabbed Bubbles by one of her pig tails and was now dragging her down all the stairs into a basement. Bubbles did not see but as Madam Scara slammed the door of the boys' room, all the dust was removed, revealing the door as being blue.

"I knew you would fail!" she trilled, "and now, and now you will be punished! Just like the others!"

The further down they went, the darker it became until when they reached the door of the basement, which was black with a red up-side down crucifix on it, it may as well have been midnight.

Madam Scara took one of the keys from her heavy chain wrapped around her waist and opened the door, throwing Bubbles inside. Bubbles fell down a few concrete stairs which were directly behind the door. As she slowly lifted herself, whimpering, she heard the groans of many people in pain and agony.

Bubbles began to realise where all the other servants were.

All along the basement walls were cages, most of them very small, almost like ones you would keep and animal in. But instead of a small animal being in each one, there was instead a cramped human. On some of the walls people were hanging from chains, their legs left to dangle causing untold pain in their arms. Everyone was naked and bloodied and bruised. The basement was a dungeon. A torture dungeon.

Bubbles began to cry this was a thousand times worse than she could ever imagine. Madam Scara dragged her arm and threw Bubbles to the ground before she began to rip at the throat of her dress, clawing at the collar and tearing it.

"I knew they had a taste of you!" she cried in exaltation seeing the puncture marks on Bubbles' neck, "what a dirty little whore you are!" she laughed.

Bubbles wept, she didn't understand.

"I haven't done anything wrong," she cried, "please, don't hurt me!"

But Madam Scara did not care. Being a sadist, Bubbles' tears only heightened her own amusement.

Pulling the girl to her feet, Madam Scara flung her into a cell where a few other bodies were huddled in the corner.

"Just wait until tonight!" she hissed, "in a few hours they shall be hungry and in need of good sport, and you my girl shall be the blood feast for tonight!"


	4. Blood Feast Begins

'_No, no, no,_' Bubbles thoughts screamed,_ 'this cannot be happening! This cannot be real!'_

She called out to the others also in cages, but they wouldn't meet her eyes and some were in so much pain they couldn't speak. Many were disfigured, pieces of their bodies had been hacked away and their wounds were left to fester.

"Have anyone of you seen my sister?" she called out, her voice sounding high and frightened to her own ears, "please, anyone? Please speak to me!"

It was then that one man hanging from a wall by his arms raised his head and said in a rasping, very voice, "stupid girl, can't you see...don't you see?"

"See what?" she asked, but he didn't answer. Instead his head flopped back down to his chest as if he were too damaged and exhausted to go on. So Bubbles began to look around the basement. Maybe her sister was here somewhere, too hurt to answer her? But, on her inspection she suddenly realised something.

"There are no women here," she muttered before repeating more loudly, "there are no women! What happens to the women? What happens?"

"They take them out," giggled a voice. Bubbles saw that it was a thin man, with long greasy brown hair, body dirty and naked in a small cage on the other side of the basement. "They take the girls, the pretty, pretty girls, outside. They take them for the Blood Feast. We sate their appetites for a little while, but it's you that they want. Pretty little girls!"

"Why do they just want girls?" she asked as he giggled strangely, feeling the blood draining from her face. "What is the Blood Feast?"

But he was no longer answering her; he just sat gabbling to himself and rocking.

"_You'll find out tonight_," a voice deep inside her head that she did not recognise as her own whispered, _"you'll find out tonight..."_

However, she was not so easily defeated. Ignoring the sounds of agony around her, Bubbles took out a small hairpin from her hair and tried to unlock her cage, but the lock was too rusted and she couldn't unpick it. She worked at in, scratching at the metal when her hairpin finally snapped in half until her fingers began to bleed, but to no avail. It was then that she bowed her head and begun to cry.

What could she do?

How could she escape her terrible fate?

All around her she could hear the groans and moans of the dying. She put her head between her legs, covered her ears and tried to block it out, hiding into herself.

Had this happened to Blossom? Had Blossom, her pure, brave, innocent, beautiful sister, been taken to this terrible room and subjected to these horrors? Had she prayed for death? Had she wished for someone to rescue her, all whilst Bubbles and her father had sat at home, oblivious to her suffering? The Morbucks, had they smiled kindly at Bubbles, all the time knowing what heinous acts they were going to inflict on her, on what they had to her sister?

Bubbles grit her teeth, fury mixing in with her terror. She began to rock, her body already freezing up and cramping from the small cage she was in and from the cold. She pulled her hair, _'I mustn't panic,'_ she thought, whilst simultaneously feeling it welling up in her chest causing her breath and heart beat to speed up, _'do not panic...I must stay calm...there must be a way out of this!'_

"I can't take it anymore!" someone shrieked suddenly, making Bubbles jump and shaking her out of her attempts of self-calming. It was a man in a cage who had cried out, his hair was a dirty blond and he was also naked, bite marks evident all over his body, "I can't take it!" His blue eyes were bulging as he began to scream, high pitched and short. It was the screams of someone whose sanity had finally snapped. He grabbed the bars of his tiny cage and began to shake it, screaming incessantly.

This seemed to set the others off, another man, one near Bubbles began to shake profusely, spittle and froth pouring out of his mouth. His eyes rolled backwards as he fell on to his side.

Bubbles put her fist in her mouth and bit down hard, terrified by what she was seeing. It was too much...it was too much for her!

Some of the other prisoners began to hide away, looking towards the door. Some, like the man who was hanging from the wall did not react at all. Most began to scream as well, as if they no longer cared about anything, because pain was all they knew and understood now.

Madam Scara burst into the room, "silent! Silent you beasts!" She marched over to where the blond man was screaming and ripped open his cage.

Though she was a woman, he was so small and thin that she easily over-powered him. She threw him to the ground and the man began to laugh hysterically.

She grinned at his madness and stared lasciviously without shame at his naked body. She was enjoying his pain, his shame, his humiliation, his complete mental break down.

Bubbles shut her eyes. She couldn't stand to watch such perverted evil.

Suddenly, everything went quiet.

Bubbles frowned.

The screams of the others, of the blond man, of the man in the cage near hers having a fit. It all stopped.

'_Open your eyes,'_ whispered the mental voice that was not hers, it sniggered making her shudder with discomfort, like when someone whispering too closely to your ear, _'open your eyes.'_

She complied, if only to stop the voice, which felt oily and filthy in her mind. It didn't belong inside her, yet somehow it was worming it's way though her thoughts and _speaking_ to her. She could see into the cage of the frothing man. He was frozen in the spot, his back arched in an awkward position. His mouth had spit all around it, bubbling and white.

His eyes were staring right into her.

His empty, dead eyes.

He was dead.

He had died.

He had died looking at her.

Bubbles whimpered and pushed her back against the further side of her cage. He didn't want to be near this dead mad-man, it scared her.

A dark chuckle caused her to tear her frightened eyes from the man and instead on to Madam Scara.

She didn't even look human anymore, her white-blonde hair was sticking out in strange angles as if electric ran through each strand and her skin was too white. Her eyes were pointed at the corners, and maniacal glint in them. She looked horrible.

"You should see this, get a clue for what will happen to you later, pretty one," she grinned widely, too widely for any human, and Bubbles saw that her canines were overly elongated. "See what came of your red-headed sister."

She opened her mouth widely, reminding Bubbles of a snake, and bit at the man's throat, him screaming in pain before blood gushed out of his mouth in thick torrent.

Bubbles screamed and covered her mouth as Madam Scara ripped out the poor man's throat and swallowed it whole, crunching at it and licking the blood from of her lips.

She laughed gutturally as the man slowly died beneath her, his mouth open in a permanent scream. She sat upon his waist and began to lap up all the blood that pouring on to the floor and down his abused body.

Bubbles was then horribly sick, vomiting on her own clothes and onto the floor. She returned to her old position, rocking with her head between her knees and her arms covering her ears.

"_Please God,"_ she prayed, "_please save me! Please...please...please...!"_

"There's no point praying to your god," she heard madam Scara sneering, "he isn't here. No one can save you from us. We are old. We are legion. We are the creatures of Satan. And we're going to eat you up little one, we're going to eat you up!"

The days are short in North Eastern Europe, especially in the winter. The pale sun that had comforted our young, innocent heroine hid away behind the clouds and soon vanished as it dipped below the horizon. The young wolf-pack of the Little Carthapians watched it leave and howled in misery of its loss. The shadows reclaimed their rulership of the cold and desolate land.

Inside Castle Čachtice Bubbles was taken out of her cage by Madam Scara.

"Take off your clothes," ordered the witch.

Bubbles stood still for a moment, her body stiff and cold and her mind telling her not to do as she was told. But Madam Scara frightened her so much that she ended up complying.

She stripped into her underwear.

Madam Scara smirked nastily and briefly before returning to her callous scowl, "take off everything you fool. You're a sacrifice. You're dinner. You are not in need of clothes. Or dignity."

Bubbles bottom lip shook and her face blazed and she took off the last vestiges of clothing.

Madam Scara then tied a blind fold around the girl.

"Consider yourself lucky," she whispered, and Bubbles could hear the grin on her lips, "your sister had a blind fold of thorns around her eyes. Such tasty blood was wasted, by dripping on to the floor. It's the only reason you are lucky enough to keep your sight."

Bubbles began to sob then, the thin walls of stoic breaking down. Her sister had suffered and died horribly at the hands of these beasts. It was more than she could bear. Guilt and fear and horror forced tears from a girl who thought she couldn't possibly cry any more.

Madam Scara laughed at her sobs, but silently led her out of the basement and away from the sounds of groaning victims and up through the house. The main door was opened and Bubbles was pushed through it. Now she could feel the cold snow under her feet and wind howling in the air, she had been led outside into the bleak winter wilderness.

"I would run if I was you," Madam Scara rubbed her cold hands down Bubbles slight shoulders and bought her mouth and sharp teeth close the Bubble's ear, "run as fast as you can."

As soon as she released Bubbles shoulders the girl fled, ripping off her blind fold. _'Perhaps I shall make it to the village,'_ she hoped desperately even though the village was a day's walk from the castle. She would have to survive the entire night naked and in the snow.

She looked back to the castle, a sight causing her to stop dead in her tracks. At the top of one of the torrents she could see a light was on. She stared for a moment before realising that Lady Elizabeth Morbucks was standing at the window looking down at her. The red-head grinned, her eyes were black but the surrounding part that should have been white was instead a deep red. Her stare was fixated on Bubbles, like that of a cat staring at a small bird.

Bubbles' mouth opened wide.

Elizabeth waved, moving her arm slowly.

Bubbles let out a horrific, throat-tearing scream.

It was in that moment that Bubbles completely lost her mind. She turned and began to run, not really paying any attention to where she was heading. She just knew that she needed to get away. She didn't know what the Morbucks were, but whatever they were they were not human, they were evil things, evil things that pretended to be beautiful but they weren't they were malicious, blood-thirsty psychopaths.

As she ran images flashed through her mind, of Madam Scara and her white hair that made her look like a demonic witch, of the three little boys, of Elizabeth Morbucks standing in front of the mirror surrounded by snow, of the long nails of Sedusa trailing down her own pale flesh, of the thing in the corner...

It was too dark to see, too dark to reason.

Bubbles heard the wolves beginning to howl.

'_If I should die,'_ she thought, _'please let it be by their jaws, the wolves have more mercy than those wicked creatures!'_

A sick, oily laughter resounded in her mind.

'_You're going to die,'_ it whispered between dark chuckles, _'you're gonna die all alone. We will feast on you. Lick up all your blood, steal away your life force...oh how we shall be full on pleasure and exaltation at your suffering! Your misery and your body will sustain us!'_

"Stop!" Bubbles screamed, covering her ears and falling to the ground, "no! No! Stop!"

'_That's right, lie down, leave yourself open for us!'_

"Oh God!" Bubbles gripped at her hair willing the voice away. She opened her tear stained eyes, "Oh please, please let this end..."

She could see a little better now for her eyes had adjusted. She turned to look at the castle, which was now further away.

Three heavy shadow flew out of the top window where Elizabeth had been and began to fly down to earth before swerving towards her direction.

Using this fear she forced herself back up and began to run again.

There was no one else for miles, no people for miles!

She suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. '_There's no point heading for the village,'_ she realised, her thoughts clearing of her temporary madness for a moment, _'I'll never make it, but there is somewhere else I can go.'_

The wolves howls lit up the atmosphere. The wind was blowing strong through the trees, making them shriek, but she could clearly hear the wolves over it. She began to follow their howls.

This led her into the forest of dead black trees.

She ran quickly, eager to reach the pack as soon as she could. Her body was in absolute pain from the cold but with the pressure of fear she could ignore it.

Then she heard it. A woman's chuckle right next to her ear.

Bubbles yelped a leapt away from it, the jump causing her to stumble and fall into the snow again. She flailed a little before getting back on to her feet.

In front of her was a being wearing a red, hooded cape. Bubbles shivered, but not from the cold.

The howling had stopped.

The figure lifted a white hand and pulled off the hood. It was Lady Sedusa. Her eyes were red and black, like Elizabeth Morbucks, and her hair moved unnaturally, as if it were a sea of snakes.

Sedusa grinned madly revealing her razor sharp teeth.

Bubbles looked around on the floor for something she could use as a weapon but there was nothing.

"You can't defeat me," laughed Sedusa, her voice sounding strange and inhuman, as if she had many people speaking inside her, "even if you could find something, you cannot beat me. I have a thousand souls in this body. The blood of a million strong, feisty little girls, just like you. They sustain me, they keep me strong.

"I'm gonna eat you up," she continued, stepping towards Bubbles, rubbing her hands over her own body, "I'm gonna drain you of your life. Oh God...Oh God, Bubbles you lucky girl, you'll be part of me." She licked her lips, her tongue too red and too long.

With unnatural speed, not unlike a spider, she suddenly sped towards Bubbles, grabbing her throat and throwing her to the ground before sitting on top of her in similar fashion to what Madam Scara had done to the poor blond man from the basement.

Sedusa hissed like a snake, writhing slightly on the poor girl before lifting one of Bubbles arms and biting it viciously. Bubbles cried out as Sedusa began to suck, only stopping now and then to laugh breathlessly.

"I should save you for Elizabeth," she said, "but why should that little brat get all the fun? All she cares about is bathing in blood for her stupid vanity. A waste in my opinion."

She leaned over Bubbles and began to scratch her long nails over the girl's body, making her bleed all over, tiny river of blood erupting over her shoulders, face and chest. Bubbles screamed in pain, trying to push the vampire off her, but it was too heavy and too strong.

Sedusa laughed at her screams of pain when suddenly a large animal came charging from the shadows and pounced on Sedusa, knocking her off Bubbles and making her scream hysterically in rage. Bubbles didn't wait to see what it was but instead continued to run. Another howl tore into the sky over Sedusa's increasingly panicked screams, a howl from behind her.

Bubbles turned to see a large wolf staring at her. Its eyes were sharp and red. Blood stained its snout. It carried Sedusa's head in its jaws by her hair. The girl stared at it for a moment. Sedusa eyes were open but rolled back, her mouth was open as if in surprise more than horror.

"You killed the monster," said Bubbles faintly. The wolf dropped the head and let its tongue loll out of its mouth as it panted. She stroked its snout, knowing not to be afraid of it.

Two other large wolves appeared either side of it both watching Bubbles.

"I know you," Bubbles sighed, "you-you were the ones that followed me here. You couldn't step into the Castle's shadow."

One of the wolves, one with pale blue eyes, stepped forward and licked her face gently. It was then that she realised that, for now, she was safe.

* * *

**A.N. Aw man did I struggle with this! First off, I've missed the deadline, so probably won't win the contest, but far worse than that is... this is nowhere near as scary as I wanted it to be! :( I dunno, just couldn't get it to be frightening. Was it anti-climatic? I feel like it was. Hm. Maybe I should have been more explicit or used more torture but I'm not into that kind of horror, more the psychological stuff. I dunno. I'll work on it later. See if I can make it scarier, but, hm, stuck right now. Anywho, we're near the end now. This was meant to be the final chapter but as usual I'm too wordy for my own good. I'm guessin people are starting to put it all together now anyway. ;)**

**Massive thanks to my reviwers, I wasn't expecting any, so getting two detailed ones was awesome, thank you so much! :)**


	5. Buttercup's story

Bubbles awoke shivering profusely. A long wet tongue licked her back making her squeal and sit up quickly. She was outside in the snow, sitting in a conclave of some ever-greens which loomed over her. She had spent the night sleeping amongst the wolves, resting one of them so that she wasn't on the snow directly, and having the other two either side of her. Now, in the cold day there was only one, a pale blue eyed wolf. It sat looking at her, its tongue hanging out. It looked a little bit stupid and she couldn't help giggling slightly at it before brushing its snout. The wolf was amazingly large, almost as large as a man.

"Where are your brothers?" she murmured.

Just then she heard the sound of feet, she turned to see another wolf, one with black fur and green eyes that looked like they belonged to a cat more than a wolf. Beside him was...

Bubbles stared unable to believe her eyes...

Besides the wolf was her sister Buttercup!

Buttercup looked as stunned as Bubbles. She was wearing thick furs and on her back were arrows in a pouch. Around her waist was a short sword. She looked like a boy and a hunter.

"B-Bubbles!" she spluttered, "why are you here? Why are you naked?!"

Bubbles suddenly blushed and covered herself with her arms. "I...well...I was in the Castle Catiche..."

Buttercup's expression suddenly darkened, "say no more. Get on him," she indicated to the pale wolf, "and I shall take you to where I have been staying."

Bubbles did as she was told, but on top the wolf called, "but shouldn't we go to papa? He's all alone in the village."

"He is safer there. I have stayed out here because I found out what those...those monsters are! If I returned home, or if you do now, they will hunt you down and kill everyone in sight. They have the scent of your blood now, they won't let you go."

Bubbles head burned with the amount of questions she felt whizzing around her skull. She was also horribly cold and could feel illness coming upon her.

The strange troupe went deep up one of the Little Carthapians Hills. This particular one was full of ever greens which scented the area strongly.

Eventually they came to a small cave which was surrounded by strange markings carved into the stone.

"These runes keep out the vampires," explained Buttercup.

"Vampires? Is that what they are?"

"Yes. They are the un-dead. Abominations in the sight of god that prey on human flesh, they find pleasure in the misery and suffering of others and rely on blood of living humans to keep their own demonic vitality sustained. The precious Princess up in that castle particularly thirsts for pretty young women."

They walked into the dark cave. All over the walls were chalk pictures of humans fighting what looked like flying humanoid monsters, and more strange runes.

Deeper in a warm glow of a red-hot fire lit up the dingy surroundings. There were various furs and meats on the ground packed neatly. Bubbles climbed off the wolf and gratefully huddled up in a warm fur blanket. She sat by the fire and felt her skin tingling with the sensation of warmth and long last. Buttercup slid thick fur boots on her feet which looked like they were suffering from acute frost bite. She clenched her teeth, wondering if Bubbles would end up having to have her feet removed but said nothing.

"You've been here all this time?" said Bubbles after several minutes of silence. She couldn't imagine sleeping in such a scary place, especially knowing what was living at the bottom of the hills.

"Yes."

"Do the...the _vampires _know you are living in here?"

"Yes. At night they stand outside the cave and talk to me." Buttercup harrumphed, "it's very irritating."

Bubbles watched her with wide eyes. "How do you cope with that? Id' go out of my mind!"

"That's what they want, they want me to go insane with fear, but I won't let them do that to me." She sighed and sat next to Bubbles. The wolves lay on the floor in the corners, watching the flames. "They sometimes bring the poor souls from their castle basement to me. They kill them outside the cave. They put the people close enough so there's a chance I could save them, but I know the Vamps are too fast for me. It's horrible."

"One of the wolves killed a vampire last night. Sedusa. It ripped her head off," Bubbles felt her voice waver a little. The whole night had been highly unnerving and seeing the head of Sedusa hanging from that wolf's mouth had been the stuff of nightmares.

"What, one of these wolves?"

"No, the third one."

Buttercup gave Bubbles a strange look, "what third wolf? This one," she gestured to the blue eyed wolf, "only appeared recently. You mean there's three?"

"Well I've always seen three. The last one is the biggest, his eyes are red. He was the one who killed Sedusa."

"If I had known the wolves could kill the vampires I would have used them long ago!"

"When did you meet the wolves?" Bubbles shifted, "how did you find out about...about the Morbucks?"

Buttercup stared into the fire for some time, and Bubbles starting to notice that she could feel her extremities again, let her stew in the dark halls of her mind until she was ready to speak. At long last she did.

"As you know I was never that happy at home, especially when mama...when mama passed away. I know she is in heaven and the Lord wanted her, but I wanted her too. She understood me. She knew that I was never the kind of girl who wanted to flirt with boys and have my first bairn at fifteen. She knew that I wanted a different life. I wanted to see the world, I wanted to earn my own money and become something more than a mother and a wife. When mama died I no longer wanted to live at home, I hated it there. Especially with papa so forlorn and the house falling into misery and disrepair. I wanted to leave.

I was happy when Castle Čachtice announced for new maids from the village. I wanted to go but instead papa sent Blossom because she was more mature. I was so angry.

Anyway, after a month Blossom sent me a letter saying that she was unhappy at Castle Čachtice, that there was something terribly wrong with the place. She told me that members of staff were vanishing and that she was concerned about the Morbucks, who acted strangely. She said things were happening at night and that she even heard a few screams now and then.

"I was jealous and bitter. I thought that she had the opportunity to leave home and make her own way and yet in the letter she was complaining. She said she hadn't written to papa because she didn't want him to worry and that she didn't want to bother you, but she knew I was made of sterner stuff and therefore she could confide in me." Buttercup took in a deep breath, "I should have told someone she was worried. I should have told her to come home at once. But I didn't. I was jealous and angry and so instead I kept knowledge the letter to myself. I never told anyone her concerns. I never wrote her back. The actual letter itself I burned in the fire." Buttercup bit her lip and a few tears fell from her eyes. Bubbles cried silently, not realising she had even begun.

"Months went by and she never wrote back ever again. That was the last we heard of her...that I heard of her. I began to feel more worried, but also more ashamed of keeping the letter a secret. I didn't know what to do. I just kept telling myself that she would be alright. That everything would work out. Even as papa became worse in his depression and even you became increasingly subdued. I knew you missed her. I had...I felt I had stolen her from you somehow.

"One night, when it had been snowing for three months straight and we were all becoming concerned that winter still hadn't ended, I remember I was peeking out of the window. I could hear wolves crying out and it...it worried me...wolves never came so close to the village before. I looked out of the window. Everything was well lit because the moon and the stars were out in all their full glory.

"I looked at the white untouched snow and then a saw someone. I looked hard and saw Blossom. At first I thought, 'why is she back and why is she here now, in the middle of the night?'

"Then I realised something else, there were no tracks around her. No tracks at all. How had she gotten to the village? It was too strange. I shook my head, wondering if maybe I was dreaming or if I was seeing things, but she was still there. She looked pale, sickly even, but very beautiful, more beautiful than I remembered. And then she gave me this really sad smile and waved at me." Buttercup cried for a while then, in between sobs continuing her tale, "I suddenly felt so scared and confused. I ran from the room and out into the snow. But she was gone. She was just gone. All that was there was our steadily crumbling village, the snow, the sky and the howls of wolves.

"It bothered me. It bothered me a lot. So I ran further through the village until I reached the outskirts. I was certain I had seen her. I ran to the outskirts, and, and I looked up the hill and saw the Castle in the distance. I hated it, then and there, I decided that I hated it. Something had or was happening to Blossom. It was my fault because she had told me months beforehand and I had ignored her. I decided to go save her and bring her home, to make us the family we once was, even without mama.

"I didn't intend to be long for gone. Maybe just the night. But you know what I am like, I just didn't put any real thought into it. I just chased into the night, deciding that any wolf that wanted to attack me could feel my fists."

"Oh Buttercup," sighed Bubbles.

"I know, I'm stupid. I walked for hours. As I got closer to the castle I saw something flying out from the towers. They looked like shadows. I ducked down and watched them flying into the Little Carthapians. I followed them. I ran into the woods. They went to where all those dead black trees stand sticking out of the earth. I hid behind a tree and saw a number of people. All women. They were wearing white paint on their already pale faces. Two of them were beating on this drum. They walked in a line, single-file. In the middle was a woman. She was naked. Her face had a bag over it. Her arms were tied behind her back and there was a long rope from her hands to one of the female captors. There was another rope around her neck, and that was being carried by a captor in front." Buttercup shuddered and Bubbles felt herself rooted to the spot.

"It was the beating of the drum, the consistent beating, I shall never forget it, and the tied up girl that made me scared. I was...I was so scared Bubbles. God I was so scared. My whole body was shaking and my jaw was clenched together so hard my teeth ached in agony. The party went into an opening and I heard this high pitched whining. It was the girl whose face was covered. She was sort of whimpering and quietly screaming. It was...it felt all wrong. It sounded so wrong.

"They stopped the slow beating of the drum, thank goodness, and the red-head began to speak. She said, 'let the Blood feast begin!' or something like that and they ripped the bag off the girl. She was so young she couldn't have been much older than us, maybe sixteen. All these tears were streaming down her face and you could see cuts and gashes and bruises all over her body. Then the red-head,"

"Elizabeth," Bubbles silently corrected in her head.

"-she began to rub her bare arms and say 'I need replenishment.' Then they untied the girl and told her to run as fast as she could. So she ran. She ran in the opposite direction to where I was hiding. They were grinning, like the whole thing was a game to them. It was like when hunters chase after game they do not need. It was awful.

"I knew the girl wouldn't survive the cold. So I was thinking of how I could help her when...when those things began to show their true selves. They began to writhe and hiss. They had long tongues that lolled in their heads and wide eyes that looked like that of a hawk gone mad and sharp teeth that looked like they belonged to a snake. I nearly screamed but I choked it back. They ran away suddenly, moving so fast they were like blurs. Alone in the snow I knew I had two options, run as fast as I could back home or run to find that girl. For better or for worse, I went to try and save the girl.

"I ran around where the vampires had been and instead went in the direction where the girl had ran. I saw her footsteps in the snow and I followed them. Eventually I spotted her gasping by one of the trees. I called out to her and she gave me this look of a terrified animal. I said, ''m not going to hurt you! Come with me, back to my home!' The girl stared at me for a little while. She was so pretty Bubbles, I know that must sound strange, but she was. She had this long brown hair that went down her back and these big blue eyes. Her skin was tan and you could tell she wasn't from these parts. She was probably some poor girl tricked into going into that horrible house for work or tutoring. It was disgraceful. She stared at me like she didn't know if I was real or not, but then she stepped towards me and held out her hand, like a small child, to me.

"And that's when they came."

Buttercup gulped and her voice became hoarse. "They must have been hiding in the trees or something. They just dropped down out of nowhere. Sedusa, she grinned at me like this was a great joke. The blonde was laughing and drooling like a lunatic, glaring and gesturing at the terrified blue-eyed girl. Then the red-head, she grabbed the girl, pulled back her head and ripped out her throat with her teeth! Blood sprayed everywhere, all over them, and they loved it. Oh...it was horrible...horrible. They began to lie in the blood that was gushing out in the snow, allowing the girl to fall to the ground. She was still alive Bubbles! She was still live. Her body was in shock and was shaking. "Buttercup stopped looking as if she were about to vomit, "I couldn't handle what had happened but it got even worse. The red-head she began to change. Her skin began to look more ethereal and she looked even more beautiful, as if she had stolen to vitality and beauty of that girl for herself.

"Sedusa was watching me the whole time. She said her name, introducing herself like we were at a party or something, and said that she liked feisty little girls like me. I ran then. I just turned and ran. I heard them chasing after me. They kept saying 'one little bite, that's all it takes.' I would've been caught but then he," she gestured to the large black wolf behind her, "he saved me. He jumped out of nowhere and I just know somehow that he wasn't going to hurt me. I jumped on his back and he took me to this place. And here I have been since. The pale wolf by you only appeared to me a few days ago. I kill some animals for food and clothing. I have to. I've tried sneaking down to the castle in the day but the blonde vampire guards it. For some reason the wolves won't go into its shadow or anywhere near the actual stones. I wanted to live alone, I suppose I got my wish didn't I?"

She smiled ruefully, no pleasure in her face.

"Have you seen Blossom since?"

"Not once."

"Do you think she's...?"

"One of them?" finished Buttercup, "I don't know."

"there are many people in the basement," said Bubbles, "all men. They kill the girls early on. We have to fight them Buttercup. We have to save those people."

"Of course we do," said Buttercup, "now that I know these wolves are more than friendly but can kill those things we definitely will. Before I was alone, but now I have you and the wolves. We will take the Castle Čachtice and we will find Blossom. No matter what."

"No matter what," confirmed Bubbles.

Both girls knew that they were probably walking straight to their deaths but they didn't care. They couldn't spend the rest of their lives in a cave being haunted by monsters, not knowing what had happened to Blossom. They would go fighting and die together as sisters.


End file.
